PK ON INSTAGRAM
Time to VOTE!
A crafter’s PSA…
Author Archive
Leaf Crafts We Love
| Animals, Decor, DIY Home, Everyday Crafts, Fall, Holidays, Nature, Thanksgiving, Toddler, Wall Decor
This weekend I am heading upstate for a little R&R, some marshmallow roasting, and, of course, leaf peeping! Every year that we attempt to peep we miss it by a few weeks, but I think, judging by the leaves in our neighborhood, we might hit it right on those nose.
I wanted to get right down into the crafts on the spot, so I combed the web for inspiration…and why not share it with you? (Featured image via.)
1. I love the idea of hunting for leaves that can be collaged into little pictures. Natacha Birds created the full alphabet in leaf pictures and they are so beyond gorgeous. And they are in French which adds to the beauty!
2. How simple and amazing are these leaf vehicles by The Art Room Plant? These are so special I would press them behind glass and save them! (If your kid is into vehicles, you should check out my new book, Project Kid: Crafts that Go!)
3. How lovely are these dangling beauties from Hello Wonderful? I love the watercolor effect on them. She painted the fronts and backs and strung them up into a lovely mobile.
4. Have you ever seen anything as darling as this cute little leaf and woodgrain hedgehog? Image via.
5. You can use the leaf shape for to create these lovely catchalls from DesignSponge. (Great DIY holiday gift!)
6. Put eyes on them, and leaves can turn into vibrant bugs and critters! Image via My Owl Barn.
7. These whimsical leaf vignettes, paired with black cut-out silhouettes, had me at hello. Found via.
Train Track Growth Chart
| Decor, DIY Home, Everyday Crafts, Kids Rooms, Toddler, Vehicles, Wall Decor, Wood
My son Oliver has always been a train fanatic. Instead of watching episodes of Thomas the Train or Chuggington, he would watch YouTube videos of trains—steam trains, maglevs, even Amtraks—chugging down the tracks. So the rails chapter in my new book, Project Kid: Crafts that Go! was really a no-brainer.
If you have a kiddo in your life that knows what shunting, huffing, puffing, and coupling tenders means, then I think this craft might be a must-make for you!
What you’ll need:
- T wo 5-foot long, 1-by-2-inch oak planks
- 60 Popsicle sticks
- Black and white acrylic paint
- Paintbrushes
- Painter’s tape
- White pencil
- Measuring tape
- Wood glue
- Six 1-inch wood circles
- 3⁄4-inch number stamps
- Red ink pad
- 2 small D-rings
- Hammer
- 2 screws to suit your wall
- 1 red tongue depressor
- Clothespin
- Washi tape
1. Paint the oak planks and Popsicle sticks black. Let dry.
2. Lay the oak planks on the floor, skinny side down, 2 inches apart. (Use painter’s tape to secure them to the floor at each end so they can’t move.)
3. Starting at the one end of each plank, make marks every inch with a white pencil.
4. Glue a Popsicle stick across the two planks at every inch mark. Let dry, undisturbed, for 30 minutes.
5. Stamp numbers 1 through 6 on the wood circles.
6. Glue the “1” circle to the very first rung. Have the child count up twelve rungs, to the point where he should glue the second foot marker. Continue until you reach 6 feet.
7. Once the glue is dry, flip over the growth chart and have an adult hammer the D-rings into the top back side of each rail.
8. Measuring so that the bottom of the growth chart is 1 foot above the ground, insert the screws at the point where the D-rings hit the wall and hang the chart from them.
9. To make the railroad-crossing gate, paint white diagonal stripes on the red tongue depressor. Once the paint is dry, glue it to one flat side of the clothespin, lining up one end of the tongue depressor with the pinching end of the clothespin. Use this to mark the height of your child on the corresponding railroad tie.
10. Use the washi tape to mark children’s heights on the wall. Write their names and ages on the tape.
Excerpted from Project Kid: Crafts that Go! by Amanda Kingloff (Artisan Books). Copyright © 2016. Photographs by Alexandra Grablewski and Amanda Kingloff
Elegant Halloween Spiderwebs
While spiders are pretty creepy and you wouldn’t necessarily ask for them to live in your house, you do have to admit that they are pretty amazing crafters. Those webs are so beautiful and delicate—I’d venture to say that most crocheters would kill to weave a web so lovely!
Here is an easy decoration that I made for Country Living that you can make using a crocheted doily, a piece of open-weave lace, or even white fishnet stockings! Just stretch the fabric in a black-painted embroidery hoop and voila! Elegant spiderwebs. Bet you never thought those two words would go together!
Happy Halloween!
New Column: Crafter Crush!
| Decor, Everyday Crafts, Food, Halloween, Holidays, Parties, Toys
Just when I think I know every crafter crafting, I discover a new one on Instagram that takes my breath away.
Do yourself a favor and scroll through the Instagram feed and blog of Wundertütchen (which, according to my fluent German—AKA Google Translate—means The Miracle).
I thought I’d seen everything in the Halloween food category until I came upon these bread aliens. (Above)
I’m not over the cactus craze, and these cactus cups do not disappoint!
These cookie portraits would be cute no matter what, but the name tags and frames? I mean come on! How cute would it be to serve these on a tray at a birthday party? Answer: so cute.
And since Halloween is just days away, I couldn’t resist posting about this bat pom-pom shooter! Cut open the bottom and stretch a balloon over it so you can catapult pom-pom pellets!
Outdoor Halloween Fest!
| Decor, Fall, Favors, Games & Activities, Halloween, Holidays, Parties
If we got to vote, I’d always raise my hand for Halloween falling on a Monday. I know by October 31st, I will have had my fill of pumpkins, spiderwebs, and bite-size snickers (um, maybe), but right now, we are entering into a week of full-blown Halloween weekend prep, a weekend of parties and costumes, followed by the actual holiday on Monday. I could not be more ready.
If your forecast allows, I say spend either Saturday or Sunday afternoon in a backyard, making as many Halloween decorations and playing as many Halloween themed games as humanly possible (like pumpkin Tic Tac Toe!). Here are some party Ideas from the vault that I shot with photographer Jen Causey and stylist Sarah Conroy, for a since-folded magazine that shall remain nameless. (I love you print magazines!)
1 (Above) Welcome your guests in the proper Halloween fashion…with a spooky message written in eyeballs! Just color black Sharpie circles on solid ping-pong balls and hot-glue them to Styrofoam wreath forms. To make the B, cut out the letter from a 2-inch thick piece of Styrofoam. True story: When I made these letters, I first made two Os to hang on double barn doors. The more I stared at them, to more I saw the word BOO minus the B.
2. One for me, one for you. One for me, one for you. I swear that was what these kids were saying as they were gluing candy onto these pumpkins! And I so don’t blame them! Set up a buffet o’ sugar and let the kids go to town. Cute candy cups from my pal Shop Sweet Lulu!
3. What better backyard game is there to play but candy-corn bottle bowling? Create a candy-corn ombre effect on one-liter bottles with white, orange, and yellow spray paint.
4. Both Inside and out, these flying bat garlands are pretty awesome. Use an LED light strand to give the bats glowing eyes!
6. Hang plastic laundry baskets laced with rope to create a super fun spider web toss game. Attach thick black pipe cleaners at four places on either side to make it look like a spider dropping down from its tree, spinning a web. Hang a few at different heights and challenge the kids to toss whiffle balls in without them bouncing out. (It’s harder than it looks!)
5. Send your guests on their scary way with a ghost-pinata knock-out. Cover white paper lanterns in strips of white streamers. Put small paper plate in the bottom of the lantern to prevent the candy from falling out before it’s time!
Pumpkin DIY Candlesticks
My husband has now learned to ask “can I recycle this” when tossing any jars, cans, or bottles that come through our house. He’s not asking “is it recyclable?” but rather “am I allowed to recycle it?” Everything is a craft supply these days, and I’m proud to say that I’ve gotten him well-trained.
I can never recycle a Martinelli Apple Juice bottle without thinking really hard before I do. They are such sweet little round bottles of grand craft potential. And naturally, around Halloween, they are the perfect pumpkin.
I made these Halloween pumpkin candlesticks for Country Living Magazine.
What you need:
- Martinelli apple juice bottles (10 oz and 25.4 oz)
- Mod Podge, gloss finish
- Orange food coloring
- Measuring spoons
- Bowl for mixing
- Foil-covered cookie sheet
- Oven
- Paper towels
- Black paint marker
- Twine
- Taper candle
- Clean juice bottles and remove labels.
- For 2 small and 1 large bottles, mix 2 tablespoons of Mod Podge with 3 teaspoons water and 10-15 drops of food coloring. Mix until blended. (Don’t add more water; the liquidity will make the final result streaky.)
- Pour orange liquid into a bottle and twirl around until its fully covered. Let excess drip back into your mixing bowl. Stand bottles opening side down onto cookie sheet. Repeat for the other two bottles. Let the bottles drain for an hour.
- In the meantime, preheat oven to 225 degrees.
- Once the hour has passed, wipe the mouth of the bottles with paper towels. Turn bottles right-side up and place on a clean sheet of foil. Put in the oven for 45 minutes, or until glass bottles are transparent.
- Let cool, then use paint marker to draw jack o’lantern face on bottle.
- Wrap the mouth/neck of the bottle with twine and knot in the back. Insert candle in the mouth of bottle.
My NEWEST Book!
| Everyday Crafts, STEM, Toys, Upcycled, Vehicles
Here’s a blurb from the intro that I wrote for my newest book, Project Kid: Crafts that Go!
If you know even one kid, you know that at a very early age, children develop interests that can accurately be described as full-on obsessions. Some go for princesses, others dinosaurs, but it’s the beloved transportation category that captures the imagination of every kid, from water babies to outer-space explorers. This book was created for them. For every child who has ever laid his little head on the rug to watch the wheels of his train chug slowly along the tracks. For the kid who flies her plane around the living room, dodging lamps and bookshelves to land it safely on the dining room table. And for the one who can make the perfect vroom and screech sounds for his super-fast race car.
But this book is not just about making toys that go. Tailor-made for the fanatical kid, it’s an all-encompassing, immersive crafting and educational experience for children who just can’t get enough of vehicles and the environments in which they are found. Within these seven chapters, you will find playful decor, costumes, accessories, and tons of pretend-play projects that you can make with and for the children in your life.
You know you have one of those kids in your life. Make his or her day and give the book as his/her next gift!
Cardboard Box Costumes
Everyone knows that the packaging can be more entertaining than what’s inside of it (at least for babies), but I’d say the same is true when it comes to Halloween costumes. Cardboard boxes are sturdy and ripe for creating amazing creations. Here are some of my favorites, some that I’ve made and others that I’ve admired!
I crafted an eco-costume story for Kiwi magazine a few years ago, and this robot (above) was one of them! What you can’t see in this pic is that there are tiny lights around the face opening on the helmet!
This retro TV costumes from Oh Happy Day makes me oh so happy! It’s a total throwback to being a child of the 80s!
I love this costume by my friend Jodi Levine for Parents magazine! Big sis can pull around little sis in the wagon of this cute circus train.
The pool noodle straw makes this juice box cardboard box costume by Mer Mag totally perfect!
Skyscraper Halloween costume? And charming as a storybook to boot! Love this idea from The House that Lars Built.
Here are two two more of the box costumes I made for Kiwi. How cute is that little Amelia Earhart in her plane and fire breathing dragon?!?
Last year my son insisted on a transforming Optimus Prime. I begged him to let me just make the robot, but nope. Not good enough. So here is a video of the final costume!
Crafts for Mini-Engineers
Last week I visited with Shelley Goldberg at NY1 to talk about fun crafts that also have an educational spin to them. If you asked me, all of my projects have a STEAM element to them…kids are building, making decisions, learning about structure, form, and balance. But here are a few that worked well for this short segment.
Among others, I showed two of the DIY Erector Sets from my newest book, Project Kid: Crafts that Go! They are all made with just two materials…
1. Cardboard and duct tape
2. Straws and pipe cleaners
3. Air-dry clay and toothpicks.
The power of crafting does beyond fun…it’s good for the brain cells!